Christmas 2011, Part One

I fully admit that I am a terrible excuse for a blogger.  That is why I have tried to convince my lovely wife to contribute...to no avail.  So here we are, two months between posts. . .

Jacob is sneaking up on 17 months old.  No real milestones lately, not that I would have blogged about them if there had been any.

This past weekend, we went to Lorena for the Wiltshire side of the Christmas Extravaganza.  It was crazy, chaotic, fun, insane, hilarious, and nuts.  But that is par for the course.  The sheer number of presents under the tree at my parents' house should be illegal.  Talk about 7 rotten grandchildren.  See what I mean:

We left Katy Saturday after I got off work, and got to Lorena early evening, just in time to eat waaaay too much great food and hit the road to Lake Belton for the Christmas lights display.  It was really cool once we finally got in after waiting in line in our cars for almost an hour.  The only problem is J-Dub's attention span is about 1/10th of the time we were there.  He doesn't sit still much as it is, especially cooped up in a car for two hours.  Good thing I brought the dog sedatives.  Worked like a charm!

Pa and Jacob looking at Christmas lights

He was more interested in the dashboard lights than the Christmas lights after about 10 minutes

FINALLY!

Opening presents on Christmas morning went about like it usually does.  The entire family crammed into my parent's living room.  Dad's video camera perched atop the same rickety tripod (c.1988) in the back of the room, documenting the entire circus.  For what, no one knows.  It starts out organized enough.  Logan is chosen as Santa, and starts handing out gifts until everyone has a pile in front of them so high that no one's face is any longer visible.  The kids take turns, opening one gift a time, clearly stating who it is from, holding it up for the camera, and thanking the person who gave it to them.  The adults will wait until the kids are done to open their gifts.  However, by the time the "taking turns" method reaches the end of round number two, everyone begins a free-for-all that doesn't end until every child and adult is knee deep in a sea of torn wrapping paper and gifts.  No one knows who their own gifts are from, let alone anyone else's.

On to some pictures:

Makinley and Molly

The girls

Pretty girls

The boys

Brynna being a goofball.

Carrie...NOM NOM NOM NOM

Awwww

Caitlyn showing Jacob the Jack in the Box

Pa reading the kiddos the The Real Christmas Story.  One of them does not seem to be paying attention.

All the grandkids

The whole Fam

October

Jacob is now 15 months old, weighs 30 pounds and is 34 1/2 inches tall.  That puts him in the 94th percentile for weight and off the charts high for height.

Nancy is finally taking down the Halloween decorations she has had up since July, so I am sure we will be putting up Christmas decorations soon.  After all, it is only two short months away.  But since the joyous Halloween season is coming to a close, I figured I would blog so I could post Halloween pictures.  We have a lot.  The ones you will see today are the cream of the crop.  Hours and hours of going through photos to bring you only the best 1% of those.  I have no idea why Jacob has 17 Halloween outfits or why Nancy took 700 pictures, but I think I need a new hard drive to store them all.

J-Dub dressed as a monster for the big day.  Well, from the neck down.  The picture below accounts for the entire 6 seconds that he actually kept the headgear on.  By the end of the night, he was in shorts and a t-shirt. We started out walking to go trick-or-treating.  That didn't last long because his costume had "feet" on it, and his feet would not stay in them.  So he had a little trouble walking.  So next, he hopped in the wagon his Pa bought him for his birthday, and off we went.  That worked much better.  He even got to munch on some candy.  Sadly, by the time we finished trick-or-treating, most of the other neighborhood kids has as well.  So we handed out only about 1/10 of the candy we bought.  Don't worry...I took it to work and between the staff and the clients, it lasted about an hour.

Last weekend, we took JKW to the local church Pumpkin Patch.  It was a little underwhelming, but I'm not sure exactly what I expected from a yard with a bunch of pumpkins strewn about.  I guess they could have had a dancing guy dressed as a pumpkin, or some beer, or something.  But anyway, we got a few pictures, because we definitely needed more photos of Jacob in a Halloween shirt.  You can never have too many of those.

Jacob made out with his first hottie today at his Little Gym class.  Evidently she is a bit of a stage 3 clinger, though.  A bit of a stalker.  She just came up to him and planted one on him, and he reciprocated, open mouth and all.  But then she wouldn't leave him alone.  Typical woman.  Just trying to play a little tonsil hockey and she gets all attached.  Evidently it was pretty hilarious...sad I missed it.

That's all the excitement I'll write about for now.  Here are a few of the aforementioned pictures.  Just think...for every picture you see, there are 100 that didn't make the cut.

Watching Football

He likes to climb to the top of the slide and then can't get down

ready for the pumpkin patch

His Grandpa taught him this

Trick or Treat

Chillin in his wagon

Munching on his first Butterfinger

The only picture with costume intact

Louisville

This past weekend, Nancy, Jacob and I went to Louisville, KY for a veterinary conference.  I need 17 CE hours every year, and had none, so I had to go somewhere.  And my choices were limited.  So, Kentucky it was.

We decided that it was time for Jacob to go on his first plane ride.  We had no idea how that would go.  As you know, Jacob is a very good kid.  He hardly ever gets fussy, and always has fun.  However, he DOES NOT like to sit still...an unfortunate requirement of flying.

We took his car seat with us, complete with a handy little strap that Nancy bought that secures it to our suitcase, so we can pull him along as we pull the suitcase in the airport.  Definitely a good idea, and well worth it.  The flight to Kentucky was very uneventful.  Jacob slept most of the way, and watched Yo-Gabba-Gabba on the iPad the rest of the time.  A perfect angel.

In Louisville, we went to the exhibit hall at the vet conference, strolled around downtown (where Jacob got to run around in several parks, which he loved), went to the Louisville Slugger Baseball Bat Factory and Museum, and ate at a few cool restaurants.  We even took Jacob to the Louisville Zoo for a Halloween Trick or Treat Party.  He dressed as a very cute skeleton.  It was a great, relaxing weekend.

Then there was the plane ride back.

As soon as we got to the airport, our perfect little angel disappeared and out came his evil twin.  He was yelling at the top of his lungs, would not sit still, would not hold our hands to get through security...you name it.  When we finally got on the plane, he proceeded to repeatedly kick the seat in front of him to the point that the lady in the seat he was kicking asked to move seats (but alas, the plane was full).  So Nancy had to turn the car seat 90 degrees, which left her with about half a seat to sit in.  He also continued to yell intermittently. 

As we taxied out to the runway and were about to take off, the pilot came on the intercom and told us that Houston had issued a ground stop, meaning that, because of storms in Houston, no more planes bound for Houston could take off.  So we had to sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half before we ever took off.  With the amount of rain in Houston on Sunday, we are actually lucky it wasn't longer than that.  Thankfully, Jacob eventually went to sleep and slept about 2 of the 3.5 hours we were in the plane.  The other 1.5 hours were very stressful.  But we made it safely, which is all that matters.  Not sure we will be flying again with J for a while, though.

This weekend, Jacob is going to stay with his M and Pa again while we go to the Aggie game with some friends in College Station.  I hope he behaves better for them.

He has started to try to climb everything he sees.  His playroom slide, the slides at the park, steps in the park, our stairs at home, the couch...anything he can find.  He has started climbing to the top of his playroom slide, but has no idea what to do when he gets up there.  He can't climb back down, and he can't slide yet, so he just waits for Nancy to come get him down.  Then, you guessed it, he climbs up again.  And again.  And again.  Hours of fun.  Here is a pic:

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Louisville:

Jacob riding a racehorse statue.  Not sure why.

With Derek Jeter at the Louisville Slugger museum

Having fun trying to climb UP the slide at a Louisville park.

Photo op with random bear at the zoo.  This is not a real bear, so don't call CPS on us.

Nancy's sad face right after we found out we would be sitting on the tarmac for another hour plus.  Luckily, Jacob is asleep by this point.

The Mighty Mississippi River from 35,000 feet

First Plane Ride

The Ginormous Bat at the Louisville Slugger Museum

At a park in Louisville

Park in Louisville

I got to hold a bat that Mickey Mantle actually used

Jacobs sleeping arrangements in the hotel closet

Me with Mickey Mantle's bat

trying to crack a safe at the Museum

His Skeleton costume

Me and Babe Ruth.  I never knew Babe Ruth was stuffed and mounted in Louisville.

Random picture at Jacob's Little Gym

While we were in the hotel in Louisville, Jacob discovered himself in the full length mirror on the wall, and had a little fun with himself.  We thought it was hilarious, and I think it is hilarious that Nancy was about to wet herself laughing in this video, despite trying really hard NOT to laugh.

Jacob and the Towel Cape

Nancy just finished bathing J-Dub and was drying him off.  He escaped.  We thought this was pretty funny, but then again, we are easily entertained.